A Wish Fulfilled
by saiyuri-dahlia
Summary: Kurama has faced countless demons, shinobi, life-taking mirrors, Karasu, his own past, etc., etc. and lived. But what might actually kill him? An infant star. Yea, go figure. Hiei can't believe it either. Light Hiei/Kurama.


Story Title: A Wish Fulfilled

Disclaimer: I still don't own Yuu Yuu Hakusho. I don't even own the idea of human stars.

Author's Notes: This is a very old story that I had actually found on my computer and apparently misplaced for a few years. Figured I'd post in hopes of someone finding some sort of entertainment out of it. Clearly, my reading Neil Gaiman's _Stardust_ at the time had an influence. And Hiei proves he should not be allowed anywhere near small children, even if they are powerful wish-granting stars.

As always, thanks for reading.

-o-

Story Title: A Wish Fulfilled

-o-

Soft crying greeted Kurama back to consciousness. Intense pain raked his prone body, as heavy and immobile as stone. He hurt from his head to his feet but knew not how he came to be this way or why he was in such an agonizing state. Never once had Kurama had to debate on whether or not to open his eyes, but here he was, making the debate.

He wanted to see the source of the crying but knew the simple action would put so much strain on his body that he wondered if it really was worth it. He was not sure if the expenditure of energy to peek at the source would be justified. In the end, discovering the answers available to him, Kurama figured, overruled maintaining his negligible level of comfort.

"Shi…shi…shi…" the little voice sobbed softly beside him.

It hurt, more than he imagined it would, but Kurama managed to drop his head to the side and open his eyes.

There was the star, a little star in human form. It was no more than a year old in appearance. Kurama had seen the waif fly out of the early night as he had came home to visit his mother and stepfamily. He had followed the glowing star after it had flitted past him in a dazzling blaze of gold and silver light.

Kurama knew the science and Kurama was well certain stars did not have genders (or appear human and float about on Earth, for that matter), but this one looked like a little boy. The star's hair was a stark white-gold and wildly crowned its cherubic face in gentle, glowing tips of fire. Brimming with shimmering silver tears, the star's eyes were a mix of blue and purple, appropriately like the darkest moonless midnight or the deepest edges of space. At moments though, Kurama would notice twinkling flecks of silver unexpectedly bespeckling the dark.

No longer able to bear the taxing weight of his eyelids, Kurama closed his eyes. The star had seen him and cried out in panic. Its little pudgy baby hands reached out and clenched Kurama's white dress shirt in tiny bundled fists. Short of crying and shouting, the star could not communicate beyond anything other than '_shi_'. It tried, of course, to string its single-word vocabulary into coherent sentences but found no luck expressing itself to Kurama in that particular manner.

Kurama was not wholly without communication to the star. There was terror, of course, gripping the star's voice. Fat tears dribbled down the star's rosy cheeks and vanished into the diaphanous wrap draped shiftless around its torso. So it was frightened and sad—that Kurama could infer quite frankly.

As to why, Kurama didn't know. It was not something he could easily find out in any case, unless the star knew of some alternative way of speaking to him. Besides, right now, being immobile and bearing the pain of every muscle in his body involuntarily cramping in waves pressed his attention more.

Unfortunately, he had no clue how to go about fixing that either…

-o-

Hours earlier, Hiei watched listlessly from atop a flickering streetlamp as the overgrown firefly danced and twirled about in the fading twilight. The young fire demon had seen and lived through stranger things—fighting ninja and living fairy tale characters, surgery to implant an evil eye in his forehead, being stuck in a video game, getting his soul stolen, suddenly losing all equilibrium to a whistle and falling headfirst out of a tree…

The point was that the little star's appearance was nothing impressive to him. However, to the still oblivious humans below, the star's merriment was a precursor to chaos. Truthfully, Hiei didn't know _how_ the cutesy star could strike fear and panic in the hearts of humans but humans were weak and stupid and naturally terrified of and in the presence of non-humans, so maybe that was enough. It was enough of an explanation to satisfy Hiei at least.

The fact remained that the star, blazing its mirror-bright aura about itself, was going to get caught. Any moment, so it seemed. Short of directly interacting with the crowds below, it practically heralded its existence to the humans.

'Course, why did it matter to Hiei? It did not. His demonic heritage was in no danger of being exposed. He cared not for the star or its fate. So as the situation was, it was not his problem.

Having better things to do than watch a foolish star, Hiei vanished.

However, it was not long, an hour or two later, before Hiei saw the star again.

_Idiot_, he thought and scowled as the star woke him from his rest. The star trilled and glided around the suburban street corner across from Hiei's perch atop some human's rooftop. The star and its blaze were not inconspicuous at all in the dark of night. If the detective was still on Spirit World's leash, he would have enjoyed this assignment for all its lack of hard work and effort.

Though the star was leaving, its appearance left Hiei thoroughly irritated beyond the prospect of finding rest at this particular spot. He would go somewhere else tonight. Somewhere without foxes who were too busy parading as human and without cute little stars annoyingly flying about.

Hiei rose and leapt onto the sidewalk. After a single step, he paused and circled back around toward the sound of quickening footsteps.

_Someone noticed the star after all_, Hiei thought with complete apathy. _It was bound to happen._

Though the star seemed blissfully unaware of its new, and potentially dangerous, follower, it was not Hiei's concern. Whatever happened to the star, it was its own damn fault.

As Hiei turned away, he caught a splash of long red hair in his sight. He quirked an eyebrow, seeing it was Kurama running in pursuit of the star. He was in the same plain lot of clothes he always wore for working at his stepfather's company—tailored khaki pants, white dress shirt, a solid black tie, formal leather shoes. Sure, he always looked crisp and professional but that was Shuuichi, not Kurama, and being merely white-collar did not suit Kurama.

_Bigger idiot_, Hiei scoffed and turned his back on the fox. Kurama had not noticed Hiei standing on the street perpendicular to his and the star's path and to no wonder. Kurama, his loose red hair whipping wildly behind him in line with his steady, agile steps, doggedly chased the star down the street and around another corner without ever noticing him. It certainly was not also due to the fact that Hiei was suppressing his energy and misdirecting it.

And why did Hiei care what Kurama was doing? The fox could do as he well pleased and he did. Kurama could choose to live a mild-mannered human life rather than the life of what he was, a demon and a powerful one at that. He could run after stars if he so wished to. It did not matter to Hiei.

Hiei, his back turned from the street where Kurama just had been, walked idly in the opposite direction.

It was not as if Hiei had not tried to talk sense into the fox. He had regularly told—more indirectly than directly—the fox that he deserved more from life, that he deserved more than to be the underling of his mother's mate. He deserved to be feared and awed by the lower class, to reclaim his vast wealth and treasure stores, and to live at the beck and call of his own whims rather than by the scourge of humanity. Hiei had told Kurama that he needed to be spoiled—after all, was that not what he was accustomed to?

The fox had listened. He always just listened. He laughed quietly whenever Hiei told him he deserved to be spoiled. Only Hiei was not joking and he thought the fox had known that. He supposed he did not, as the fox treated his words as if they were meant for his amusement.

The last time Hiei had tried to convince him to return to Demon World with him, Kurama had pretended to consider Hiei's words seriously. He had dragged Hiei along all night, dodged his direct questions, and gave Hiei vague responses and even vaguer smiles. He had played his mind games, as he always did, and never truly answered him. Hiei had left infuriated in the night and had not spoken to Kurama since.

Hiei realized he had stopped walking after only three blocks. He stood on the sideway and stared distantly at the concrete sidewalk aglow white in the moonlight.

_Damn fox_, Hiei cursed. _Stupid stubborn fox. No matter how he pretends to be human, Kurama's still a creature of Demon World just as much as I am. So why won't he return with me? He does not fit with these humans. Kurama should be where he belongs. …Amongst demons._

However, as made clear to Hiei multiple times, Kurama had made his choice and no amount of persuasion was convincing him otherwise. The fox had hinted in much more subtler words that if Hiei wished to return to Demon World that he was free to do so whenever he wished and that he did not need Kurama's person or assistance to leave.

Before now, Hiei had never given much thought to leaving alone. He had always assumed Kurama would see the sense and logic he so proudly utilized and leave with him. But Kurama was not. Kurama had made his choice. It was time Hiei did the same.

And so, Hiei resigned himself to leaving the human world altogether.

Briefly, he considered meeting with Kurama before he left, as Kurama had done before going back to the human world after the Demon World Tournament but bashed the thought rather quickly. Goodbyes were trivial, at least if one had nothing more to say but good-bye, and what more did Hiei have to say to the fox? Nothing he had not already said and nothing Kurama would want to listen to. So that was it. Hiei began walking into the night and did not look back.

Until he felt the surge of strange energy.

Circling around as fast as a cat's strike, Hiei watched a ray of silver and gold light rise and pierce the black night. He also felt Kurama's energy signature disappear altogether.

Hiei ran.

-o-

Hiei reached Kurama quickly. Never had he ran so fast before. He was at Kurama's side in less time than he had taken to kill Evil Kintaro. It had taken even less time than that for Hiei to make sense of the situation. He saw Kurama lying on his back on the ground and next to him was the star weeping. Kurama was alive—_that_ Hiei could sense—but he wasn't moving.

Hiei grabbed the star with one hand and raised its wriggling, writhing form to meet his glare.

"Start talking," he said, punctuating his order with a quick flick up of his sword's hilt with his free hand.

The star wailed. Loud enough that both demons were certain the surrounding humans would notice.

"I am all right, Hiei," Kurama said. From the sound of his voice and his expression, Hiei could tell Kurama's every hoarse word was a painful effort. "Put him down."

Hiei did not.

"What do you mean you're all right?" Hiei said. "Since when did your standards of being well not include standing or moving?"

"Valid point," Kurama said. "But that is still no reason to terrorize the poor thing."

Hiei muttered a few angry protests but eventually threw the star hard to the ground, making it cry out in pain. The quivering star crawled away from Hiei and laid against Kurama as if the immobile fox would protect him.

"Get away from him!" Hiei yelled and swiped at the star while the waif ignored him and buried its sobbing face into Kurama's chest.

As far as Hiei saw, the star was the source of Kurama's problem. It had no right or need to be anywhere near Kurama. But Kurama let it stay beside him, mostly because there was nothing Kurama could do to get away from it. Hiei wondered, as he glowered at the star, what the hell the pathetic runt had done to Kurama anyway. As of now, all the star seemed capable of was crying and being an insufferable annoyance.

And yet, the star had taken down Kurama with little to no effort. Hiei knew he had to be careful. He was not about to let the star make a repeat display out of him. The star was nothing but a crying pain but Kurama was no weakling, no beginner's challenge. Kurama did not go down so easily, unless there was something very wrong in the world.

And as Hiei watched Kurama lay on the concrete sidewalk and strain to breathe, Hiei realized there was indeed something very wrong with the world.

"Uncover… Jagan…" Kurama said through heavy, pained gasps.

Hiei did so without protest.

"This is a new low for you, fox."

"_I am well aware of that," _Kurama said. _"This is quite an embarrassment… Promise me you will not tell anyone of this?"_

"I have no reason to."

"_I take it to mean that you have no reason to use it against me at this moment," _Kurama said._ "When that time arrives, remember what you've done and recall that my memory is far greater."_

"Blackmail is typically your suit, not mine."

"_Just covering my bases, Hiei. You would not object to that?"_

"Hn. Right now you're laying flat on your _bases_."

"_True," _Kurama said._ "…How long was I unconscious?"_

Hiei shrugged. "Five seconds at most."

"_I do not know why, though…" _Kurama briefly broke the Jagan's connection to think to himself for a while._ "All I recall is a blinding light, and well, you observe how I ended up."_

"So much for your superior memory," Hiei said and smirked.

-o-

The night grew deeper. The moon and stars steadily traversed to the right and still Kurama did not stand. He still lay on his back on the sidewalk with his eyes closed. He did not move. He barely breathed. With every check of his Jagan, Hiei observed the strange white-gold energy press on Kurama's body. Kurama grew weaker. And Hiei still had no idea how to help him.

"_What is happening?" _Kurama asked.

"Your human body can't handle the amount of spirit energy inside you."

"_I do not know how this can be. My acclimation to Youko's integrating energy should not be advancing this rapidly."_

"I know Youko's energy," Hiei said. "This is not from your old self. You have two energies in your body. One is your own. The other…" Hiei slid his sharp glare onto the little star. "Feels like his."

The sobbing star, sitting beside Kurama's head, stopped sucking its thumb long enough to wipe away a trickling silver tear and then nodded, affirming that it was its energy inside Kurama destroying his body. To be sure, Hiei scanned the star with his Jagan and discovered that the star indeed had a sudden lack of spirit energy.

"Great…" Hiei said wryly. "You don't know how to reabsorb it, do you?"

The little star put its thumb back in its mouth and shook its head yes and no.

"Which is it?" Hiei shouted, and, when the star repeated the yes-no nod, he grabbed and shook the little star. "I'm not playing with you! Tell me, which it is?"

The star cried.

_"Hiei, stop."_

"Not 'til it gives me the right answer," Hiei said, shaking the star faster. And maybe it wasn't helping his search for answers but shaking the star sure made Hiei feel a hell of a lot better.

_"Perhaps it did,_" Kurama said. _"Maybe, you are just not asking the right questions."_

Hiei stopped shaking the star and considered Kurama's words, and in the meantime, the star wriggled out of Hiei's grip.

Night edged onward, the star's energy continued pressing on Kurama's body, threatening to tear him apart as it struggled to escape, and Hiei kept asking the star questions and received few answers. So far he had learned that the star could reabsorb its energy and that it required someone's assistance but Hiei hadn't yet found out what someone was supposed to do that would allow it to reabsorb its energy. As he contemplated on his next stab in the dark, he felt Kurama's consciousness waver.

"_I'm…sorry…Hiei,"_ Kurama said. "_…I think…I see Botan._"

Hiei panicked, looking between the star and wanting to shake it to death and back at Kurama. This couldn't be happening… Kurama could not be dying… It was just a pathetic little star! It couldn't be killing him. It couldn't be taking his fox away from him.

"Kurama, I should be the one saying I'm sorry," Hiei said, his voice low and soft, as he clasped Kurama's hand and interlaced their fingers. "I failed to find out how to save you. I still don't know how. And I would give anything to know. I don't want to be without you. I…"

Hiei sensed the link between the Jagan and Kurama's consciousness break.

"I should have told you sooner," Hiei continued, not sure if Kurama could hear him or not. "I should have been honest, direct. I never left because I didn't want to leave without you. I don't want to live in the human world but I want to be with you. Maybe all your teasing and refusals to leave were just a polite way of telling me you didn't feel the same but I should have been honest. But instead I waited like a coward and a fool to tell you when you were dying…"

Feeling what seemed to be the last of his life fading, Hiei kissed Kurama. It was their first and last and was certainly not how Hiei had ever wanted their first kiss to be. Their first kiss was not supposed to be a goodbye. The softness and warmth of the fox's lips were not supposed to turn cold and rigid soon enough after. First kisses did not come before funerals.

As he reluctantly parted their lips, Hiei murmured, "I wish I could save you."

As soon as he spoke, Kurama's body blazed white-gold. The star's energy poured forth from Kurama and returned to the positively beaming star. Its energy once again shining mirror-bright around it, the star fluttered around and sang cheery melodies in celebration.

Hiei just wanted to know what the hell it was so happy about. Because if it was happy it had killed Kurama, Hiei would make sure he sliced the star in very thin pieces, starting with its throat.

And then Hiei felt Kurama's consciousness return. And then the pulse of his energy signature. And then he saw his chest rise.

"Kurama…" was all Hiei could say as he began to open his eyes.

"I suppose your wish was granted," Kurama said, his voice weak, and gave a small smile.

So it seemed Kurama was alive. He was no longer dying. In fact, he seemed to be regaining all his strength and mobility. For reputation sake, Hiei tried to keep his smile still retain the impression of a smirk and concealed the true depth of how relieved and overjoyed he truly was at the wonderful sight of Kurama's saved life.

And because he could not simply tell Kurama how happy he was that he was okay, Hiei said, "You realize you were nearly killed by the spiritual equivalent of a marshmallow?"

"Yes," Kurama replied with a light laugh as he sat up. His voice was growing stronger with every word. "Luckily, my pride seems to have suffered the most damage."

"This world has made you weak, fox."

"Perhaps…" Kurama said, wearing a vague smile as he slowly began to get up. "It seems I need to be watched over... Would that be something that would interest you?"

"Since you will not listen to any other reason than your own," Hiei said, helping him up. "…I will have to."

"You will be staying with me no more than you already are."

"I suppose so," Hiei said and then smirked. "Someone has to be around in case you go chasing after stars again."

As if on cue and done with singing joyful songs, the star flew down and hovered beside Kurama. Hiei didn't like it and didn't want the star on the same spiritual plane as Kurama but the little star merely laid its hands on Kurama's shoulder and asked Kurama something in its one-word-restricted language with a concerned look on its face.

"Not to worry," Kurama assured. "I am all right. You have done no harm. You never meant any, I know."

"Oh, no harm done. Just nearly killed you," Hiei said not at all under his breath.

"Nearly," Kurama said and smiled and the little star raised its pudgy baby hands into the air and cheered.

And with a quick hug around his neck and a quick peck on Kurama's cheek, the star flew off into the sky, waving goodbye along the way. Kurama and Hiei stood and watched it vanish into the night. It couldn't vanish quick enough for Hiei's patience.

"Actually, it is rare for a star to come down and interact among humans, so I doubt this occurrence shall ever repeat itself," Kurama said as he and Hiei proceeded to walk the long way back to Kurama's apartment (since by now it was much too late for Kurama to visit his mother and Hiei refused to appear before her). "But if it ever happens to, I'm glad I have you to come to my rescue."

And then Kurama leaned down and gave Hiei's cheek a quick kiss.

"If it ever happens again," Hiei said, trying to sound annoyed and hide the redness of his cheeks. "You're on your own."

Trying to stifle his laughter, Kurama merely peered up at the twinkling night sky and smiled.


End file.
